Adelaide National Recruiting Manager Hamish Ogilivie says a mixture of good character and a strong athletic profile were the defining factors behind the selection of Mitchell Marsh at Pick No.22 of the 2025 Telstra AFL Draft.  

The Crows picked the South Australian with their only first round selection on Wednesday night. 

The 191cm forward is the son of Adelaide 1998 premiership player Ben Marsh, who played 48 games for the Club across six seasons. 

Marsh was a standout for South Australia in its Marsh AFL National Under-18 Boys Championships, booting 12 goals in four games to lead the competition’s goalkicking tally.  

Speaking after the first round of the draft, Ogilvie said it was a thrill to welcome the lifelong Crows fan to the Club. 

“It’s a great story isn’t it, Mitch is a South Australian kid whose dad played for the Club, it’s not why we picked him though, we picked him because he’s a really good footballer,” Ogilivie said. 

“He’s got a great attitude, high character and his running is fantastic, which will allow him to play not only as a forward but on the wing as well.  

“It (drafting a player that supported the Club growing up) doesn’t happen that often, but in this case, it has.

“That’s because he deserves his chance, he’s worked really hard and he’s performed, he was the most versatile player in the national champs as a forward, he kicked the most goals. 

“We wanted him and he wanted us, so it’s a good result.”  

The Crows took an active approach to live trading throughout the first round, as they attempted to shift their pick higher up the board in pursuit of South Australian midfielder Dyson Sharp.  

“It was busy in the war room, it was a very busy draft with a lot going on,” Ogilvie said. 

“We threw the kitchen sink at trying to get Dyson which we said we would, we did our best, but it didn’t quite work out, the team that wanted to pick him weren’t prepared to let him go either – they knew how good he was also. 

“We gave it our best shot, and we are super excited to have brought Mitch into the footy club.”  

The draft continues on Thursday night with the Crows currently holding Pick No.46. 

Ogilvie said there were still a number of exciting prospects on the board.  

“We move onto tomorrow now, there’s still some players on the board that we like and we’ve done a lot of work on,” Ogilvie said.  

“Our pick 55 has moved into 46 so that’s a good result, we’ll see what happens if it goes up or down from there, but it’s going to be exciting to see how that pick falls.”